Oil spill in Ecuador Amazon region blamed on 'sabotage'

A state oil pipeline in Ecuador was hit by an act of "sabotage" on Wednesday, causing an oil spill into a river in the Amazon basin, the national company Petroecuador said.

The "sabotage" on the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline System (SOTE) caused a leak of crude that was "intentionally near a body of water" on the outskirts of Lago Agrio in the east, the company said in a statement, without specifying the amount of oil spilled or what the act of sabotage was.

The US NGO Amazon Frontlines, which advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples added that "these events occur too frequently in the Ecuadorian Amazon, affecting the lives of communities of indigenous peoples and biodiversity."